31 research outputs found
Reduction of deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination by improved fungicide use in wheat. Part 2. Farm scale tests with different nozzle types and updating the integrated approach
Fungicidal control of Fusarium head blight
(FHB) of wheat with fungicides generally has poor efficacy
(0–40%). However, small plot trials prove that a 70–
90% reduction in toxin contamination is possible. We
compared two variants of side-spraying nozzles with the
Turbo FloodJet. The new nozzle combination (QJ 90, TT
F, XR B) reduced visual FHB scores by 50% as compared
to the standard TeeJet XR nozzles. The fungicide
choice is decisive, the best product reduced DON by
81%, the least effective only by 31%. Greater genetic
resistance is also decisive, the most resistant cultivar
showed a 73% reduction in DON across all treatments.
The combined effect of the fungicide + cultivar was
98.5% between the UTC and best fungicide/variety combination
(GK Fény/PT) across three years. The new
combined nozzle was more effective at the better fungicides
containing prothioconazole, metconazole and
tebuconazole, at the less effective fungicides its effect
was only average. Correlations between small plot (Part
1) and farm tests were r = 0.96 (P = 0.001) for FHB,
r = 0.91 (P = 0–001) for FDK, and r = 0.75 (P = 0.02) for
DON indicating that small plot results forecast field
usefulness
and reduction in field control was close to the
small plot results for all traits. The heart of integrated
plant management (IPM) is the combination of variety
resistance, the effective fungicide and the side-spraying
technology with appropriate nozzle choice. Resistance
governs fungicide reduction, nozzle influence, effect of
previous crop and tillage. Susceptible cultivars should be
withdrawn from production, but cultivars such as GK
Fény treated with preventive fungicides at the flowering
phase can be grown without any serious food safety risk.
With a careful field-specific IPM combination, the reduction
can be doubled without significant additional costs